DVD Series - How can I tell what episode?

[milder]

When ripping a DVD of a series, how can I determine which episode each track correlates to (without watching it)?
Edit: Tried using "FileBot," but it's way off, not even getting the Season correct. So I know what season this DVD has...that it must be episode 1-4, but I've found that the track and the episodes don't always correlate...

Thanks!

[Woodstock]

It depends on how the disk was mastered. Safest bet is to ripe everything, then look at the "right duration" files with VLC or similar until you can identify the episode, then rename the file the way you want the title to be.

MOST of the time, the episodes will be in title order. But not always.

When they aren't, it could be anything, from one out-of-place episode, to a total cluster F..k.

[Normal.Person]

Some info: DVD9 (Dual Layer) have one track that starts at the inner ring going outside (like an old LP record) and then, at a specific chosen point, it jumps to the 2nd layer to read backwards towards the inner ring again. This is to prevent skipping of video. Because of this manner of reading, you need to carefully think of how to author the DVD to make both tracks almost the same size (well, if you want to do it professionally and keep as little data as possible, that is). Since episodes aren't all exactly the same size, the DVD-author can choose to put episodes in different order.

A DVD structure always starts with some .ifo and .bup files (the .bup is a backup of the .ifo). The menu has one set, and each video can have one. The minimum you have is
VIDEO_TS.BUP
VIDEO_TS.IFO
VIDEO_TS.VOB
VTS_01_0.BUP
VTS_01_0.IFO
VTS_01_0.VOB
VTS_02_0.VOB

The VIDEO_TS.IFO has all the info of how the structure of the DVD. Where to jump to next, which sequence to play, in what order, PUOp's (Prohibited Users Operations), where to go to if you press a button, etc. Each video can have its own VTS domain.

If you are a lazy DVD-author, each episode has one VTS domain. You can easily spot the episodes that way, but you still need to try and keep each layer as close to each other's sizes. So, you can have VTS 1, 2, 3, 4 etc, but the menu structure says for episode 1 "jump to VTS 4" etc. Sometimes you also see dummy video inserted in such structures for this reason (fill up space to match both layers and as copy protection).

----

You need IfoEdit (free) and any version of MPC (Media Player Classic). Open VIDEO_TS.IFO with IfoEdit and play it also with MPC. Make sure the "Information" option is on (CTRL+3). If you now play the DVD, and select an episode, you'll see in the information window "Domain Title x". "X" is the "Title", but that is not always the same as the VTS. In IfoEdit you will see in the lower window a summary of the DVD structure. You'll see the "Number of Title Play Maps: x (VMG_PTT_SRPT). In that part you see what "Title" corresponds with what VTS domain.

For instance: Title 3: VTS_8_*, TTN_1 (Angles: 1) (Chapters: 6) (Start Sector xxxx)
This means that if MPC plays episode 1 and in the Information it says 'Title 3", VTS_8 domain is that episode.

When you encode episodes, each episode will simply be in the order of the VTS domain, but in this case, VTS_8.mkv will then be episode 1, while a lower VTS can be episode 2, 3 or 4.

This sounds complicated, but in seconds you know what Title corresponds to what VTS. In MPC you just use ALT+R to jump back to the menu structure to quickly select another episode, that has a different domain.
Short version: Play DVD in MPC, find Title, see wat Title in VIDEO_TS.IFO has that VTS number in IfoEdit.

Just remember: This is the easy structure, it gets somewhat more difficult if you have only one VTS domain with several episodes in one .VOB sequence, but those structures are 99% of the time 1, 2, 3 etc sequences.

[preserve]

As Woodstock mentioned, just rip everything and then compare against known info (Wikipedia is great for this) such as episode title if shown on screen, production number if shown at end, or some easy credit in the opening credits such as writer and director. I’ve always found this is the quickest solution. Check the case and know what you’re ripping in case you have to watch out for extended versions or anything like that. Avoid the title that is 3 or 4 times longer than anything else, it’s likely a “Play All” playlist.

Also look at Source ID since MakeMKV can rearrange the authored order. I find it helpful to include this field in your filename.